UPCC: A model of plagiarism-free inquiry project-based learning
Introduction
It is not easy to define plagiarism due to the wide and varied use of the term (Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019). Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2020) defined plagiarism as to steal and pass off (words of another or the ideas) as one's own, to use (another's production) without crediting the source; to commit literary theft to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. According to Satija and Martínez-Ávila (2019), plagiarism is using someone's intellectual or artistic creation without permission, acknowledgement, and credit. A common aspect that can be found in definitions is someone using ideas or words by others as if they were his/her own (Leitão, Simões, Almeida, & Martínez-Ávila, 2019; Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019).
Plagiarism avoidance is the aspect related to the ethical problems of information literacy skills (Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019). Information literacy is acknowledged as having the following processes in common: to locate, validate sources, evaluate, and use effectively and ethically the needed information (Fraillon, Schulz, & Ainley, 2013; Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019). An information literate student is unlikely to commit unintended plagiarism, maybe intended too (Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019).
There have been cases of school students who had their entrance exam scores invalidated in Mainland China (Zhang & Guan, 2013). In higher education, offenders have been expelled from the university (Barrett, 2011). In some cases, the repercussions of plagiarism manifest years after graduation, when the offenders are well established in society; in 2013, Germany's education minister resigned for having plagiarised in her doctoral thesis written 31 years ago (Abbott, 2015). Williamson, Mcgregor, Archibald, and Sullivan (2007) studied the information seeking and use by secondary students in Australia; they pointed out that, nevertheless the lure of copying and pasting was hard to resist for students, and a student remained defensive, even after her assignment had been penalized by a loss of marks because of her plagiarism.
In some cases, plagiarism is due to ignorance of laws and codes of ethics which is a form of information illiteracy (Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019). Deliberate infringement of ethical guidelines among students is not always the norm as many are ignorant of laws and codes of ethics, due to the lack of related knowledge (Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019).
Plagiarism education is becoming progressively important as teaching and learning evolves. In secondary and primary schools in which inquiry project-based learning has become increasingly popular, students are given the freedom to search for and make use of internet sources, which increases their likelihood of plagiarizing these sources (Lee, Chu, Cheng, & Reynolds, 2016). Project-based learning or PjBL should be distinguished from Problem-based Learning (PBL). Coincidentally, inquiry project-based learning (PjBL) is a pedagogy that provides students with ample opportunities to develop information literacy (Chu et al., 2011).
Project-based learning (PjBL) is a systematic approach to foster effective writing skills. Although some studies adopted strategies including reducing plagiarism (Tamburro & Harris, 2016; Yeung, Chu, Chu, et al.), quite a few studies related to PjBL are still lacking attention to anti-plagiarism intervention in PjBL pedagogies. An example is that, as many as 69% of medical students plagiarised online sources in their PjBL course assignments, and 32% plagiarised the work of course-mates, largely because of a lack of awareness of what constitutes plagiarism (Kim, Hwang, Lee, & Shim, 2016). Even with the frequency of inquiry PjBL in these students' curriculum, they did not acquire the necessary skills to avoid plagiarism, which highlights the need for educators to actively carry out anti-plagiarism intervention. Chu et al. (2014) used an UPCC pedagogy in PjBL which has been tested for effectiveness in reducing students' plagiarism in an academically strong secondary school in Hong Kong (Lee et al., 2016), where the percentage of reports with plagiarism decreased by 10.6%.
Former studies, however, neither investigated the specific positive and negative factors affecting plagiarism by using UPCC in PjBL, nor explored the behavioural, cognitive, and affective effects of the UPCC in PjBL in supporting secondary students to avoid plagiarism, which are the problems that this study aims to address.
Section snippets
Literature review
One common plagiarism intervention is the punitive approach of using plagiarism detection software. While useful as a deterrent (Davis, 2007), this approach puts teachers in the position of enforcers rather than educators (Devlin, 2003; Price, 2002). Moreover, sole reliance on computer software (e.g. Turnitin, 2017) as a plagiarism deterrent has been criticised (Divan, Bowman, & Seabourne, 2015; Stapleton, 2012). For instance, according to Kaktiņš, L. (2019), for international undergraduate
Methodology
This study utilizes a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative data and subsequent analyses were used to explain the phenomenon in a more convincing manner (Yin, 1994). Quantitative data was mainly collected by using the Plagiarism Assessment Scale, and a student survey on perceptions of UPCC for plagiarism. Qualitative data was mainly collected by using focus group interviews with students and teachers.
Plagiarism levels in PjBL group projects
The numbers and percentages of the groups in 2013, 2015 and 2016 are shown in Fig. 2. Descriptive statistics indicated a trend towards a positive change in students' anti-plagiarism behaviour over the three cohort years. The percentage of groups that showed no plagiarism behaviour (Level 0) increased from 30% to 40% to 47% and the percentage of groups that showed serious plagiarism behaviour (Level 3) decreased from 58% in 2012–13 to 44% in 2014–15 and remained the same in the following year.
Effectiveness of the UPCC model
The effectiveness of the UPCC model is discussed in relation to the expected learning outcomes in behavioural, cognitive, and affective aspects, as outlined in Fig. 1.
Conclusion
An information literate person is a well-informed citizen to participate intelligently, effectively, and actively in the society for promotion of democracy and its human progress (Satija & Martínez-Ávila, 2019). Building on the anti-plagiarism education and PjBL pedagogy literature, the UPCC pedagogical model implemented and studied over three years has developed academic integrity and anti-plagiarism skills in secondary school students and identified students' learning needs. The analysis of
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Samuel Kai Wah Chu is an Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Learning Leadership, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. He obtained 2 PhDs in education – one focusing on e-Learning from University College London, Institute of Education and another focusing on information and library science from The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Education. His research interests lie in the areas of gamified learning, social media in education, 21st century skills, plagiarism-free
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Samuel Kai Wah Chu is an Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Learning Leadership, Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. He obtained 2 PhDs in education – one focusing on e-Learning from University College London, Institute of Education and another focusing on information and library science from The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Education. His research interests lie in the areas of gamified learning, social media in education, 21st century skills, plagiarism-free inquiry project-based learning, digital literacies, school and academic librarianship and knowledge management and intellectual capital. He has published articles in Computers & Education, The Internet and Higher Education, International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Scientometrics, and Library & Information Science Research.
Xuanxi Li is a lecturer in School of Teacher Education of Huzhou University in Mainland China. She completed a postdoctoral study in East China Normal University. She has worked as a lecturer in Shanghai Normal University in Mainland China. She holds a PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are in the areas of computer supported collaborative learning, learning analytics, and adaptive E-learning. She is also a writer of children's literature. She has published articles in Computers & Education, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, and British Journal of Educational Technology).
Sanny Mok is a research assistant at the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. She holds an MSc in applied linguistics from the University in Edinburgh, after graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a BSC in food and nutritional science and English studies.